All A Dream?
by amessoffand0ms
Summary: Oneshot based on the upcoming episode, "Hello, I Must Be Going." Zoe has to make a choice- will she stay in sadness or follow her heart?


 _No, I can't die. I'm not ready yet. I've got a life to live, a happy life with Max._

 _Shelle looks at me, straight in the eye. "Say your goodbyes to your boyfriend, sunshine."_

 _"No." I growl, my voice low but sure. "And he's my husband, actually."_

 _"I'm going to kill you, you've got no choice."_

Max watched his wife toss and turn in her sleep. She was mumbling the word "no" over and over, every time he tried to shake her awake, she pulled away from him.

"You're not going to kill me. If you attempt to stab me in the stomach I'll knock you out. I've been on more health and safety classes than you've had hot dinners." I insist. "Plus, it'd only be a flesh wound anyway."

 _Shelle sneers at me. "All right, smarty pants." She says._

 _Vince pulls a gun from his back pocket. I take a step backwards- I wasn't expecting this._

 _Behind me, Elle gasps. "Zoe, we need to go. Now."_

 _"They'll kill us."_

 _"Not if we buy ourselves some time."_

 _I sit down. "Give us a few minutes." I order Shelle and Vince._

 _"What are we going to do?" I whisper to my new colleague._

 _"Just keep talking to them. I'd do it, only I think that you'd do it better."_

 _"You're talking to the woman who stood up to Connie Beauchamp." I retort._

 _"Well in this situation you're better than I am, trust me."_

 _"Okay." I nod, and stand in front of Vince and Shelle once again._

 _"So?" Vince asks._

 _"You're not going to gain anything by killing myself and Elle, you'll go to prison. Think of Mercedes and Connor." I appeal to Vince. "They'd never cope without you."_

"Zoe!" Max called his wife one last time, beginning to panicking. Zoe was trembling in her sleep, crying out every so often.

 _"Zoe!" I hear a voice call. It's Max._

 _Vince, Elle, and Shelle freeze. Another image appears beside them. It's myself and Max, cuddled up together in bed, asleep._

 _"You have to choose, Zoe. No what ifs, no dithering." Says a voice whom I recognise as Charlie._

 _Vincent clears his throat and cocks the gun behind me._

 _I take a deep breath and run as fast as I can towards the image of myself and Max._

 _"Jump!" Elle calls as the gun is fired._

 _I leap towards myself and Max. I'm falling, am I dead? Did the bullet hit me?_

 _"I'm coming!" I call to Max as I hear him call again._

"Zoe." Max smiled as his wife opened her eyes. To his surprise, she burst into tears.

"Don't leave me, please don't leave me." Zoe sobbed, nuzzling into his chest. "I love you."

"Shh." He soothed her, rubbing her back. "I love you too. I'll never leave you again, I promise. I forgave you for everything a long time ago."

Zoe lifted her head to look at him. "I'm so sorry for cheating on you."

"You did it to hurt yourself, not me. I understand now." Max reassured her. "It's forgotten, I promise."

The consultant kissed her husband. "I want us to be happy, Max."

"I do too. What was your dream about?"

"Elle and I were taken hostage by Shelle and Vince. I was about to get shot and I heard you calling to me. Then an image of me and you asleep together appeared." Zoe began.

"I then heard Charlie telling me to choose, I began to ran toward the picture of me and you." The consultant carried on. "Then you called me, I jumped into the picture and then I woke up."

"No wonder you were crying." Max said, kissing her. "How d'you know that the new consultant is called Elle?"

"Myself and Connie interviewed her. How do you know about her?"

"I saw one of your emails."

"Oh, that reminds me." Said the female, sitting up and tucking her legs under her. "I emailed Nick Jordan asking him for a job in America... He said that there's one ready and waiting, that's why half the stuff is gone from here." Zoe gestured around the room. "But I don't want to go now... I thought that you and me didn't have a future."

"I'll come with you then."

Zoe shook her head. "We have a life here. I don't want to uproot us. I want to be happy in Holby, Max."

"Okay- what about your job?"

"There's a consultant post going on AAU. You can ask for a transfer."

"That sounds good." Max said, putting his arm around her. "I want you to know, Zoe, that wherever I am in the world, there's nothing more than I'd love than my wife at my side."

Butterflies kicked up in Zoe's stomach. "That is a ditto." She responded, kissing him.


End file.
